Taylor Swift teamed up with her frequent collaborator Aaron Dessner for the first live performance of “Right Where You Left Me” in Santa Clara, Calif., on Friday (July 28).
The live debut of the 2020 Evermore bonus track, which was co-written by The National frontman, arrived during the surprise songs portion of the pop superstar’s set at Levi’s Stadium. Prior to the performance, Swift warned Eras Tour concert-goers that it was one of her more challenging songs to play live.
“Because it’s one of our favorites, there’s more pressure on it,” Swift told the crowd. “Also, this is one of the wordiest songs. I have been rehearsing this for weeks, OK? And I’ve never, ever gotten it 100% right. Not even one time. If this is the time that I get it right, you have no idea what kind of celebration I’m going to be exhibiting after that. And also, this goes for you. If you can get all the words right to this song, you get to pat yourself on the back. You win an imaginary prize. It’s yours. We love this song and I hope that I somewhat do it justice.”
As expected, the songstress goofed up the lyrics before laughing it off and starting again where they left off. “It was too good to be true!” she said. “I knew that I would f— that up! We really can’t let that be it, so now we’ve got to go back.”
This isn’t the first time Dessner has appeared with Swift during the Eras Tour. The singer-songwriter has also popped up in several cities for onstage collaborations of “The Great War,” “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” “Seven” and “Ivy.”
Swift’s second surprise song of Friday evening was the first live performance of “Castles Crumbling,” from her recently released album, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The studio version of the track features Paramore‘s Hayley Williams, but Swift delivered the track solo on piano.
The North American leg of the Eras Tour will continue in Santa Clara on Saturday (July 29) and close with six shows at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium (Aug. 3-5 and 7-9).
Watch Swift and Dessner perform “Right Where You Left Me” here.
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